By Maru Attwood 

27 March 2026

In the 2021 local government elections, there were close to 1.8 million 18 to 19-year-olds who were eligible to vote. 90% of them did not even register. According to Thaafir Mustapha, founder of SoWeVote, “If every matriculant this year registered to vote, they would be the 4th largest voting bloc in the country.” 

In the face of South Africa’s declining levels of youth participation in politics, SoWeVote, an initiative led by people in their teens and early 20s, is working hard to remove barriers to voter participation and excite young people to vote and get involved in political processes – including in the lead up to the 2026 Local Government Elections later this year.

A broken political culture 

Mustapha, who is currently a third-year law student at the University of Cape Town, became interested in political processes while still in high school. He took a year off school and volunteered in the office of a member of parliament, but found the political culture at parliament to be “quasi-corporate” and overly legalistic. Politicians called each other “honourable” but failed to listen to one another or engage authentically with the needs and perspectives of regular South Africans. 

When Mustapha spoke to other young people about upcoming elections, he realised that the sterile, dysfunctional political culture, combined with issues like unemployment and corruption, leaves young people apathetic. Too many people were not interested in voting, telling him they didn’t care for politics because voting changed nothing. 

In 2022, Mustapha created SoWeVote, a youth initiative active on university campuses and high schools that aims to mobilise young people to “get educated, get involved, get registered” to participate in South Africa’s democracy. 

Politics that speaks Gen Z

Rather than continue with the same dry, outdated political messaging that bores and drives away young people, SoWeVote uses bold, often irreverent social media messaging to educate its audience about everything from what parties' platforms are to the real-life impacts of changes in legislation. 

Mustapha says, “We try and keep it as informal, as casual, as ‘memey’ and as Gen Z as possible…I want people to feel like institutions actually can work for them.”

Over the last year, SoWeVote has set up field offices at high schools, aimed at listening to high schoolers' questions and perspectives about politics and training students to get as many young people as possible registered to vote. “Through this project, we're hoping to get a whole slew of eligible voters coming out of matric at the end of this year, going to the polls,” he says.  

The initiative has a presence on many of South Africa’s university campuses and encourages students to get active with student politics as a way to spark a lifelong interest in local and national politics. 

Breaking barriers to voting 

A large part of why South Africa’s youth turnout is so low, according to Mustapha, is because of obstacles in the country’s election that make voting more difficult than it should be. SoWeVote also advocates for voter registration with policy proposals that include:

• Establishing a set election date so people can plan further in advance and to prevent political meddling in the choice of date. 
• Automatic voter registration as soon as someone turns 16. 
• Making it easier for people to cast ballots early, so commitments like studies, travel, or work on election day don’t stop you from voting. 
• Creating a “None of the Above” option on voting ballots for people to be able to express their discontent with the available parties. 

Why local politics hits home

As South Africa heads towards local elections, SoWeVote aims to mobilise young people to “highlight how personal local issues are.”

“If you're going to get people to believe in systems again, [local government elections] is where you want to get them to do it,” Mustapha says. He emphasises that decisions made in local government have an immediate bearing on daily life: how much you are paying for water and rent, whether there are potholes on the road outside your home, and what public transport options exist. 

At its core, SoWeVote is focused on transforming apathy about politics into excitement about the possibilities for real change on the issues they care most about. “A lot we cannot do on our own, but that's why we've got to do it together…We are a majority in our population. We've got the time, we've got the will and the idealism to create a world that we want to see,” says Mustapha. 

Header Photo: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp